Monster Hunter: A New Legend
by The Master Hunter
Summary: In this story, the child of a famous hunter sets out to create a legend of his own. Will he succeed in this journey, or will he crack under the pressure and fall like so many before him have? He will have to find other hunters to support him on this quest of a lifetime, but as he progresses, he will face new and exciting challenges that will test his and his partners' mettle!
1. Chapter 1: A New Legend Rises

Chapter 1: A New Legend Rises!

The sand of the desert was like that of water in an ocean, vast and untamed, rippling in the winds like waves. Plants were sparse, and beyond the rocky formations that housed some form of life was the seemingly infinite sea of sand. Traveling along this terrain was tough, a harsh exercise in futility. However, there was one daring young man willing to take on the danger. His name, or at least, what he liked to be called, was Geo the Storming Wind. Known for being wild and unpredictable in his hometown, it was no surprise when he was found packing his things for a journey. The journey of a lifetime, the path of the Hunter!

After preparing his sand skipper, a sort of small, angular boat meant for sailing over the sand with ease using the wind, Geo smiled to himself, "I'm almost there. Just wait for me, dad. I'm going to become a legend, just like you did." He hefted his knapsack, filled with the personal items and such that he couldn't simply store aboard, and tossed it into the skipper. Before he could hop aboard himself, however, a voice called out behind him.

"Oooooi! You're not just gonna leave without saying goodbye, are ya?" Geo chuckled a little, turning around to find the entirety of his people behind him, waving and wishing him good luck. The village was a small one, but despite the hard times that they went through, its people were tough. The farewell party included the elders of the village, the five adults that took care of the four children that just couldn't sit still and rushed Geo, knocking him to the ground with tears in their eyes, "Gah! What're you guys up to?" They cried out, "Don't go!" "Please!" "We don't want you to die!"

The voice that had called him earlier let out a hearty laugh, and stood over the fallen Geo, "You really have so little faith in him? Chin up! You forget who his father is!" The children reluctantly slid off of him, and Geo accepted the hand extended from his childhood friend, who was almost like a brother to him, to pull himself up, staring at him with a hurt look, "You told ALL of them?" Zachery smirked and punched Geo on the shoulder, "Oh, please, like I would've been able to keep them from knowing. The elders have special powers, y'know." He jokingly elbowed him, and Geo simply rolled his eyes, "Yeah, yeah." He bashfully faced what had become his family over the years he'd been there, "S-sorry for springing this outta nowhere like this. I just...I need to see the world like he did! I have to become a hunter!"

The Elder and his wife, a pair of older, wiser folk, walked through the crowding children. The male, a well-built man for his age, leaned down and placed a hand on Geo's shoulder, his tan face cracking into a smile, "We've known for years that you'd follow in the footsteps of your father, Geo." The woman, who looked not a day over 40, chuckled in that odd, hissing way she did, "Hss, hss, hss! You certainly have your father's eyes! Now that you've become a man, we expect great things from you." Geo nodded, a determined fire in his eyes, "I won't let you guys down." They both returned the gesture, backing away to allow the final farewell.

"Oh, Geo!" A sandy blonde woman passed the crowd and threw herself onto Geo, wrapping her arms around him and squeezing him tightly. Geo yelped in surprise, "M-Ma, I know. You don't have to worry…" His guardian, his mother, looked up into his eyes. Even though they weren't connected by blood, the tears streaming down her face were a product of love, the love for who she considered her son leaving her side and going out on his own in the world. The young man embraced her for a moment, then pulled away, holding her at arm's length, "I'll come back someday. And when I do, I hope dinner is on the table." He grinned at her as she laughed, squeezing her son's hands for another moment before she, too, backed away.

Geo stepped onto the skipper and stood above his home, looking back on it with a smile, "I guess this is farewell, for now. I'm glad that I got to see you all one last time. You're the reason I have become who I am today, and I'll never forget that." He jumped up and pulled on the sail line, unfurling it just as a gust of wind came along, setting the boat onto the sandy shore, "The next time you see me, I'll be a legend!" Catching the wind in its sail, the skipper shot off into the sea of the desert, literally skipping across the sand a few times before settling into a solid pace. Geo didn't stop waving until the village became just a dot behind him, and he kept waving for minutes more, until he could no longer ignore the sound of his destiny awaiting him.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. No sense in letting the past hold me back, right? Dad?"


	2. Chapter 2: A New Legend Rises, Part 2

Chapter 2: A New Legend Rises, Part 2

After traveling from his unnamed home in the middle of the Great Desert, Geo was making quick progress across the sandy sea. Navigating through the desert was like second nature to him by this point. The soon-to-be hunter knew exactly where he was going, despite the endless sand around him making it seem hopeless. His destination was Val Habar, a port town bordering the Great Desert that he was currently cutting through on his sand skimmer at great speeds. The dry winds rustling his short, dark brown hair while he manned the wheel, narrowing his eyes as he focused on the horizon dutifully, making sure he stayed on course. It had been like this for days now, only taking a break when he felt his body close to giving in on itself. When that happened, he simply took a day to rest up, preparing himself for another round of seemingly endless sailing through the equally endless desert.

Geo looked down at the compass embedded on the rail next to him for what must've been the thousandth time since he'd left, making absolutely sure he was still heading in a straight line. It was much too easy to get distracted and go in complete circles. Nodding to himself, he whispered, "Just a little longer. Almost there…and a good thing, too. I'm almost out of supplies." Just as he said this, his gaze shifted back up to find a difference in the horizon. Instead of the desert sands touching the clear blue sky, there was the rugged outline of a town. Geo's eyes sparkled with excitement and relief, having finally made it after nearly a week of constant travel. He gave it an extra push, eager to get to Val Habar, when he noticed something...off. Signs of movement in the sky caught his attention, and he craned his neck to look up, shielding his eyes from the glare of the sun with a hand. What he saw drained the color from his face. A swarm of Remobra, snake-like wyverns, circling above his little sand skipper, and it seemed as though they'd been there for awhile. He gulped nervously, thinking to himself frantically, "There's no way...aren't those things rumored to hunt with the Elder Dragons? They wouldn't be so far from the nest otherwise...d-damn it, I'm just overthinking it. All I have to do is make it to Val Habar. They should scatter if I do…" With that thought in mind, Geo put some extra pressure on his homemade ship, making it go as fast as it could before something bad happened.

Before he could even react, Geo's ship was boarded by something flying through the air and landing on the port side. It took him a moment to process it, but there was no mistaking the Delex, a fish-like wyvern that often leaped up from the sand onto ships passing by. Geo ducked immediately, just barely avoiding a blast of sand coming from the Delex's mouth, "Shit! Shit! Aaaagh, why now!?" He quickly tied the mast so that it'd go in a straight line while he dove off into the room where he kept his supplies just behind him, avoiding another blast of sand that frayed the rope with how intense it was. Inside, Geo located his weapon, a simple, jagged sword and shield, meant for beginners, but extremely versatile in the hands of a master. Geo was no master with them, but it was the only weapon he had on the small ship. He quickly strapped the shield onto his left arm and then grabbed the sword, rushing out to confront the rouge Delex.

By the time he got back outside, there were already two Delex swimming along his deck, with a couple of others making taunting leaps at his ship. Geo shook off the momentary shock from before, gripping the sword tight in his hand and giving a primal roar before leaping off the railing into the deck, slamming his shield into one of the squirming Delex on board. It thrashed wildly underneath him, throwing him off and slamming him into the edge of the boat. Geo was dazed, sparks of pain firing in his head, but as soon as he heard snapping jaws behind him, a rush of adrenaline allowing him to roll away. A second too late, and a swimming Delex would've snapped his lolling head. Geo stood back up shakily, his vision blurry, face to face with the two Delex. One of them jumped at him, and with pure instinct, Geo spun to the side and slashed his blade at it as it passed, causing it to fall off the edge with a large gash in its side. The next one came right after the first, landing on top of Geo and snapping its powerful, gator-like jaws at his face while he pushed it away with all his might. A shout of defiance ripped through his lungs as Geo placed his foot onto the beast's stomach and pushed it up and behind him, throwing it off his ship into another Delex by pure chance.

Standing up quickly, ready to face whatever wanted to attack him next, Geo was surprised to find that none of the other Delex had jumped onto his ship while he'd been preoccupied. In fact, everything was...quiet. Glancing off the port side, he could see none of the Delexs' brothers tailing him. "D-...did I scare them off?" He relaxed, letting his sword drop to the deck next to him, his own rear dropping to the floor right after it. His body was sore from the sudden fight, and he was already too drained to do anything more than simply wait for his ship to crash into the docks, which were still out of sight.

However, as fate would have it, the sand began to rumble with powerful tremors, and from the sand right in front of the young, soon-to-be hunter's ship burst forth two massive horns, making the sand sink behind the ship, throwing it off-course. This was the least of Geo's problems, as the monster bearing the twin horns showed itself on the surface, a massive beast a hundred times bigger than a regular-sized ship, let alone Geo's tiny sand skipper. His eyes locked on the face of the legend passed down by his people, the Elder Dragon known as the Jhen Mohran. It seemed to look down to him, challenging him to do something in the face of this overwhelming force. Despite its movements showing nothing to suggest that it aimed to attack Geo's skipper, the young man felt another rush of adrenaline pass through him, and he scrambled to his feet immediately, rushing over to the wheel. His ship wasn't equipped to fight such a large monster, so his only choice was to run as quickly as he could as it raised up high into the air, legs still buried, making to crush the puny skipper. Geo's small size was a godsend, as when he veered to the right after untying the wheel, the Jhen's impact on the sand from its return to the underground missed him by a mile. The sand it raised still covered his ship, but other than that, all was fine. Geo worked the skipper like a master, working with the wind to go as fast as he possibly could.

All the way in Val Habar, a hunter on lookout spotted the massive Jhen Mohran as it rose from the deep sand, and sounded the alarm. Soon enough, many ships, much larger and more equipped than Geo's, swarmed the desert sand, locking in on the Elder Dragon. As the two got closer to Val Habar, Geo could see a rescue team coming to him, getting close enough to toss him a rope with a hook attached, meaning to pull him along with them as they made their escape. Geo caught the rope by the hook and attached it to the firmest part of his relatively flimsy ship, nodding to the crew aboard. All of a sudden, a massive tug hit the ship, knocking Geo off his feet. They were really sailing, now, and the Jhen Mohran was left far behind them. The other ships passed by the rescue team, lining up next to the Elder Dragon and firing cannons or harpoons at its massive body. The cannonballs exploded on impact, bringing wails of pain from it, but the harpoons failed to latch in too deeply. Seeing that it was about to be killed, the Jhen Mohran let out a massive roar, stunning all the members of the ships nearby, and then retreated back into the sand, escaping back into the Great Desert.

Geo, meanwhile, sat aboard his ship, watching it all take place in front of him like it wasn't real. But it had been. He'd just encountered an Elder Dragon, and lived to tell the tale. Once the shock had dissipated, relief took over, and Geo let out a laugh of part joy, part insanity. "Oh, good, you're okay! I thought you went into shock and died!" A girl's voice, light and airy, made Geo turn around curiously to see a lithe young woman tightroping her way across ships to get to his, hopping off and landing in front of him gracefully. She was shorter than he was by a couple of feet, but her body was that of a hunter's, strong yet nimble at the same time. She wore the armor of a monster Geo had never seen before (at least, he assumed it was that of a monster), and had a wicked longsword strapped to her back. She turned around, and Geo caught his breath, the blood rising to his cheeks as he took a look at her face. She could be considered cute, but to him, she was gorgeous, with long, brown hair tied up into twin ponytails that just accentuated her adorability.

Realizing that he had been staring at her for the past minute without a response, Geo stammered out something like, "N-n-naw, I s-see stuff like that everyday…s-surfin' around in the sand n' stuff..." His flustering earned him a giggle from the girl, who extended a hand to help him up, "Well, Mr. Sand Surfer, do you have a name?" Geo took the hand, shocked at how smooth it was, and stood up shakily, his legs wobbling, "G-Geo. My name's Geo." She quickly moved closer and held him up, grabbing him around his waist and looking up at him with a smile, "Nice to meet you, Geo! My name's Sami! We're almost to Val Habar, now. Are you new here? Any reason you made the journey?" Geo blinked a couple of times, heart racing even more than when the Jhen Mohran was chasing him until she mentioned Val Habar. He remembered why he was there, and then it all became clear again. His legs steadied themselves, and he ran over to the edge of the ship, looking on at the port town as they approached steadily, "That's right...I'm here...to become a hunter!"


End file.
